


A Meeting to Last a Lifetime

by Dark_Knight_HQ



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), Assassination Plot(s), BAMF Natasha Romanov, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Mystery Character(s), Mystery Woman - Freeform, Old-Man Steve, Post-Endgame, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Time Travel, Tony Stark Death, anti-steggy, long lost friend, mild survivors guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25132804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Knight_HQ/pseuds/Dark_Knight_HQ
Summary: His life is drawing to a close. Hers is just beginning.He's waited decades for this moment, she has no idea it's happening.Twenty years before the final fight against Thanos, Steve Rogers finally sees her again.(Probably the only Endgame-compliant thing I'll ever write)
Kudos: 4





	A Meeting to Last a Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I thought of during lockdown. Enjoy!

**October 3 rd, 2003 - Prague**

Even after all these years, Steve remembers the story she told him. He knows exactly where she will be and what she will be wearing. She told him a long time ago – and will tell another version of him in a few years – about this day. It was one of the few things she had never understood about her life before they had met, and he could not make sense of it at the time either. They had known each other for almost four years when she mentioned the strange encounter, and he was thankful now that he had asked for all the details. The small café with outdoor seating isn’t what he had expected from her, but he supposes it is as good a place as any for her purposes. She is here for a reason, and he knows she will arrive any minute.

Yet that does nothing to calm his nerves. Unlike every other time he has ever seen her, he knows this will be the last time – no more Starbucks after a run around the city parks, no more secret smiles at meetings, no more _frankly terrible_ attempts at making grilled cheese sandwiches at two-thirty in the morning. They are small memories that he knows would be insignificant to most people, but he clings on to tightly, even as it pains him to revisit them. She is a painful topic generally for him, though he tries not to make that obvious. There is so much he wants to change, so many things he would tell her and so many more questions he would ask, that at times he wishes he could forget her. At this point he knows that will never happen.

Peggy offered to come with him. Even though he only told her he wanted to visit an important ‘place’, she must have sensed it was precious enough to him that he might have needed her there. If he had not gone through everything that he had, if he were still the same Steve that became trapped in ice, perhaps he would have. But, then again, if she had known who he was coming to see, she may not have had quite the same reaction. Steve knows, after over fifty years together, that _she_ is a sore topic for his wife. He knows Peggy believes he would not have returned if things had turned out differently for the woman he waits for in this small café. He longs to tell her that she is the only woman he has ever loved, that he would always have returned to her no matter what, but the words sound false even in his mind. He cannot life to his wife, so he tells her the truth: that he knows he is happier now than if he had remained with the Avengers after Tony’s death.

He also knows that she is different at this moment in time, that this girl is not the woman that became so important to him nine years later. The acknowledgement does not fill him with confidence, but it is a necessary one. He takes a gulp of his too-hot coffee and leans back in his chair, looking subtly around the café as he waits. It doesn’t take long.

He has never seen a photograph of her as a teenager, yet he recognises her immediately as she sits at a table next to him. He is not surprised to see that her hair has been dyed a dark brown and plaited across one shoulder. She blends in well, especially when she orders the same skinny cappuccino he has heard at least a dozen women around him ask for. They bring her drink out far quicker than they brought his, and he bristles ever so slightly when he sees the waiters sneaking awed glances at her. There is no way she could be any older than seventeen, but he pushes down the urge to remind the gawking men of that and commits to memorising her one last time. She’s as short as he remembers, her small nose wrinkling as she flicks a spec of dirt off her coat.

Then he catches sight of her eyes, and the smile dies on Steve’s lips. They are a dark emerald, so achingly familiar that it takes his breath away, but there is an emptiness in them he has never seen before. For a fleeting moment, he is reminded of Bucky, and the ache in his chest doubles as he grieves for two of the friends he lost.

He leans to the side to talk to her before he can lose his nerve. “If it had snowed today, I might have left my holiday early.” He’s not sure why _that_ is what he chooses to say, with no idea what the weather in this city is like, but he breathes a mental sigh of relief when she looks up at him.

“Pardon?” She doesn’t look surprised that he’s talking to her. _Must be used to it,_ he thinks, glancing at her white coat and sneakers. It is a perfect disguise, the pink blush on her cheeks only making her look friendlier and more innocent. Unnervingly, she looks more approachable than he has ever seen her, but only on the outside. Her eyes remain icy as she looks at him, no hint of recognition in them – not that he expected any – and her face is devoid of any personality, replaced with a smile that only he can tell is false.

He points to the pavement next to them. “It’s been snowing for weeks, aren’t you glad it’s stopped?” He’s making shit – _things_ up on the spot, and he holds his breath when she narrows her eyes.

However, it quickly becomes apparent she cannot see through his nonsense. She begins to glance around the shop as she responds, no doubt looking for the target he remembers her telling him about. “It has been awful, yes. Much snow. You live here?” Her English, which he knows she can speak fluently, sounds exactly like someone unfamiliar with the language, her Czech accent flawless.

He lets out a small laugh, no longer worried that she would recognise Captain America. “Just visiting some friends, for a few months. What about you?” It’s a stupid question considering her accent, but he hopes that this girl will see him as non-threatening for just a little longer, since he cannot bare to leave.

She looks at him briefly as she takes another sip of coffee. “I lived here until a few years ago.” _Lie._ “My mother and I moved to Moscow.” _Lie._ “Am visiting my father for little while.” _And another lie._

He doesn’t say that, though, merely nods thoughtfully and pretends not to notice when her eyes zero in on a man sitting in a corner table. He is typing away at a laptop with one hand while sipping a drink. While the picture of nonchalance, he is clearly the girl’s target. Steve uses the opportunity to study her in more detail as she plans her next move.

She’s been in her… _profession_ for three years, but he knows from her stories that she has been training for far longer. To anyone else, she does not have a care in the world, but Steve can tell she is less comfortable with the idea of being undercover than she will be one day. Only small things give it away: the sharpness of her eyes and the stubborn set of her jaw. They are tiny details that he would never have noticed in anyone else, but he knows that, over time, she will hammer out those ‘imperfections’ until her performances are flawless. Her cheekbones are not as sharp, her eyebrows skinny to match the trends of this time, but she is disturbingly similar to the older face that he remembers so clearly.

Without warning, the man that she has been preparing to approach stands to leave. He is almost immediately joined by five other, much burlier men, and Steve notices the girl slip her phone out of her pocket and begin to drink her coffee faster, attempting to be subtle. He’s not sure if she could take down all six men – she has not had as much training at this age, but she is far more ruthless. He knows she will kill them all without so much as blinking if she has orders to.

But she is too late, and her target leaves through the back door without even noticing her. She doesn’t give chase – Steve knows the case was something not worth risking exposure for, and that she finds him again in nine days – but she sighs in aggravation as she sips the last of her drink through gritted teeth. She stands to leave abruptly, clearly not intending to give him a goodbye, and he follows suit quickly, desperate to hear her voice once more. She is frustrated that he intruded on her work, it is clear to him, and he cannot bare his last encounter with her in his lifetime ending on a bitter note for her.

“Ma’am.” He pressed his fingers around her wrist for the briefest moment, just enough to stop her in her tracks. She doesn’t flinch away – of course she doesn’t – but he knows her other hand is gripping a weapon he’s fairly certain he does not want to meet. She turns to face him, her eyes somehow both flat and curious. He leans down to be closer to her ear, the familiar action from all those decades ago bringing yet another ache to his chest.

She stares right back at him with steely eyes. “Yes, sir?”

_So cold,_ he thinks sadly. He knew it would hurt. Seeing her this way – no warmth or humanity or _anything_ – was never going to be easy. But it is necessary, perhaps for both of them, so he gives her a small smile as he tugs the bottom of her plait ever so gently. “The red will suit you better.” He wonders if he is the first person ever to properly surprise her, and he takes a strange sense of satisfaction at the idea.

And then he walks away, leaving Natasha Romanoff staring after him.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! I might do a second chapter set during the first Avengers about this meeting but I'm undecided.


End file.
